May 14, 2015

Defense attys want info on possibly uncertified cops

An organization of criminal defense attorneys is the most recent group requesting swift action on allegations of training and certification deficiencies within the Albuquerque Police Department.

A member of the New Mexico Criminal Defense Lawyers Association (NMCDLA) said the group is in the process of requesting action from both New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas and the Second Judicial District Attorney Kari Brandenburg.

NMCDLA Treasurer, Barry Porter told New Mexico Political Report he expects the group will write a letter asking Balderas and Brandenburg to move forward on releasing names of officers who might not be properly certified.

Porter said cases of resisting arrest and assault or battery on police officers may come under scrutiny, especially if the officer was not properly trained.

“All of those [types of cases] require, as an element of the offense, that the officer be in the lawful discharge of their duties,” he said. “But if they’re not adequately trained, we would challenge their physical interaction with the citizen on the street.”

The concerns from NMCDLA comes almost a week after former police trainer John Corvino filed a lawsuit against APD accusing the department of improperly training officers and reprimanding Corvino for speaking up.

“It’s a giant mess,” Corvino’s lawyer, Thomas Grover said in a phone interview.

He said the issue is not just about his client’s lawsuit, but also the validity of the certifications for possibly 100 APD officers.

“[The Corvino case] isn’t about fixing these officers’ certifications, that’s just a residual element that the city has to deal with,” Grover said.

Grover told New Mexico Political Report he was not aware NMCDLA was in the process of addressing the APD training, but he also wasn’t surprised.

“I think they [NMCDLA] do need to come forward with some sort of position,” he said.

For now, Porter said, the group of defense lawyers have not made an official statement, but that does not keep other attorneys from challenging the credentials of officers. While the names or the exact number of officers who are potentially not certified are unknown, Porter said that information is all public record and subject to public review.

“We can start requesting that information in all of our cases,” he said.

Porter said his group’s next meeting will be sometime in June.

New Mexico Political Report sought comment from APD but received no response.

Comments

More About

Ricardo Chaves says he won’t accept any outside cash to help in his quest to become mayor of Albuquerque. “I won’t take any campaign money, because I don’t want to be beholden,” Chaves said in a recent interview.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – When Ceon Dubose Palmore got thirsty at school, an administrator had to escort the 15-year-old past trash-bag-covered fountains to a faucet two floors down. This report is part of a project on drinking water contamination in the United States produced by the Carnegie-Knight News21 program.

A few weeks ago, we reported on a proposal by Augustin Plains Ranch, LLC to build a pipeline and pump 54,000 acre-feet of water each year from the aquifer to the Albuquerque area. The 37 wells would all be in Catron County near the town of Datil.

The Department of Justice says for the city of Albuquerque to qualify for a partnership to combat violent crime, the city will have to comply with efforts federal immigration enforcement for immigrants who are detained. To qualify for the cooperation and funding, the DOJ says Albuquerque, and three other cities, must answer questions on how the city cooperates with federal authorities on immigration“By protecting criminals from immigration enforcement, cities and states with so-called 'sanctuary' policies make all of us less safe,” Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in a statement.

A district attorney received responses after writing a letter to the Albuquerque Police Department and the New Mexico Law Enforcement Academy (NMLEA) about concerns with police training. The overall message: Everything is fine here.

House and Senate lawmakers are pushing identical proposals that would abolish solitary confinement for pregnant women and children and steeply curtail its use on people living with mental illness in New Mexico’s jails and prisons. If passed into law, supporters say either bill would provide a statutory definition for “isolated confinement” in the state and much needed transparency on the scope of the controversial practice of leaving inmates alone in their cells for 22 hours a day or more with little to no contact with others and few opportunities to participate in educational or rehabilitative programs.“Right now, we do not know on any given day if it’s 100 or 1,000 people in isolated confinement in the state of New Mexico,” Rep. Antonio “Moe” Maestas, the Democratic sponsor of HB175, said.